Everyone loves to be outdoors during a sunny day. Although
being in the sun might make us feel good, we all recognize that too much time
spent in the sun can sooner or later cause wrinkling and worse, skin cancer. Wrinkles,
which are in fact signs of skin damage and aging, make you look and feel older
than you really are. Skin is among the most important organs of the body.
Wrinkles indicate that the skin is losing the elastin that keeps it young and
healthy. Sunshine is essential for our bodies to turn specific types of
cholesterol in foods into vitamin D, a significant nutrient that helps
decrease aging of the immune and cardiovascular systems. The liver and kidneys
then change vitamin D into vitamin D3, the active form of the vitamin. Ten to
twenty minutes of sunlight each day seems to be the optimal amount that each of
us requires.

Regrettably, a lot of people live in areas where the sun
isn't adequate for them to receive this benefit. It takes a fair amount of energy
from the sun to turn the cholesterol precursors of vitamin D to vitamin D3 just
any old sunshine won't be enough. Actually, anyone who lives north of Raleigh, North
Carolina, will not get this benefit of the sun
starting October 1 to April 15, because the sun doesn't have plenty of energy
throughout this period to convert precursor vitamin D to vitamin D3. If you are
living in the North, or in the South but unable to get some sun each day, you
must take 400 IU of vitamin D daily, or 600 IU if you're over sixty years of
age. Reports on mood elevation indicate that sunlight and exposure to
broad-spectrum light help enhance our mood. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
and other forms of depression can be improved by exposure to sunlight. So a bit
of sun is good.

How much is too much?

Skin cancer comes into mind regarding sunlight exposure. As
a universal rule, your risk of skin cancer is determined by the amount of sun
exposure you received thirty years back, not how much sun you're exposed to
presently, since it takes some time for these cancers to grow into clinically
significant events. Those who had serious sunburns as kids are at much higher
risk of skin cancer than those who never burned. Nevertheless, just because the
sun exposure you got as a child is the most crucial to your risk of skin cancer
does not mean you can be careless as an adult. If you plan to be in the sun for
more than 10 or 20 minutes a day, take some precautionary measures.

Too much sun ages us since exposure to ultraviolet light ruins
elastin and elevates wrinkles. It also harms the chromosomes in skin cells.
Chromosomes are the strands of DNA found in each cell in your body. If you look
through a microscope at sun-damaged skin cells, you will see literal breaks in
the chromosomes where they've been damaged by solar radiation. Astonishingly,
the sun can even damage the chromosomes in cells indirectly exposed to
sunlight. This chromosomal damage can lead to cancers.

There are two types of skin cancers: basal cell cancers, and
squamous cell cancers. Even though these skin cancers are seldom fatal and can
typically be removed surgically without major aging backlashes, they are
usually disfiguring. Still, there is a third type of skin cancer that is much
subtler. Malignant melanomas are quite serious and can be fatal. About 54,000
cases are reported annually.

While oxidants and antioxidants are viewed to be among the most
essential elements of vitamins in the past, new research shows that
oxidation might not be the primary cause of arterial aging. It could be
that anti-inflammatory attributes are more important factors in creating
the chief anti-aging benefits of vitamins; it is still not yet known
for sure that anti-oxidation alone is creditworthy for the main benefit.

Although antioxidants aren't the magic bullet that was first thought,
they still bear excellent value, since they supposedly could help
prevent the damage from oxidation that has been tied to cancers and
other sorts of aging. Taking the right quantities of antioxidant
vitamins C and E, for instance, can make your physiological age one year
younger. Still, a lot of people wrongly think that little bit of
antioxidant is good, a lot is much better. Too many antioxidants,
particularly the wrong type, can in fact cause oxidation and its
subsequent impairment. It is recommended to use antioxidants in
moderation.

To better understand antioxidants, let's consider oxygen. Oxygen is
needed for our bodies to function in the least. Breathing is key to
living. As we breathe, oxygen enters the bloodstream and is transmitted
to our cells. When it gets into your cells, oxygen builds the foundation
of several of the cells' most basic processes. This same oxygen, all
the same, in the form of unstable molecules or ions known as oxygen
radicals (or free radicals), could oxidize tissues— that is, induce
those tissues to "rust." As an effect, oxygen waste products, known as
lipofuscins, build up inside the organs like the heart and brain,
leaving brown stain on the tissues. Do these waste products induce or
impart to aging or age-related disease, or are they only innocent
by-products?

Oxidation itself might not be the primary problem. There could be a
more fundamental problem like inflammation, or something else that
induces immune dysfunction. Whatever the cause, these brown patches are
indications of aging. As one ages, the more prevalent they turn out.

Think of apples. When you slice an apple and allow it to sit out in
the air, it would soon become brown. When exposed to air, the surface of
the apple oxidizes (mixes with oxygen). This process is the same as
what occurs when oxygen radicals build up inside our body. Take that
same apple and sprinkle lemon juice on the slices, they will remain
white. The apple doesn't become brown since lemon juice is full of
vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant. Lemon juice prevents the
oxidation process and keeps the apple from "rusting." Inside our body,
antioxidants like vitamins C and E do the exact same thing.